What is the deal with people marking replies (theirs and others) as the answer on other peoples p...

I don't need someone else saying (for me) this reply is the answer to my problem. If it is the solution to my problem then i will mark it as such. I don't need someone else trying to do my thinking for me. This is a website, not the US government!

If some moderator (or whomever else has the power to mark replies as the answer) thinks someones reply is the answer to someones post then that is their opinion. it doesn't make it the answer. The reply might be a solution in a general scene but, it doesn't
mean its the answer to my specific problem, which is after all why people post here, to get answers to their coding problems.

Re: What is the deal with people marking replies (theirs and others) as the answer on other peopl...

It might not be perfect, but it's better than no-one having their answer marked which happens quite often. The OP will respond to say the post fixed the problem but didn't mark it, or they'll post to say it was fixed then mark their post as the answer.
The current system might mean the odd person gets points when they shouldn't but I'd rather that than people providing answers and getting no points for it.

I'm afraid I no longer use this forum due to the new point allocation system.

Re: What is the deal with people marking replies (theirs and others) as the answer on other peopl...

In addition as the question author, you should have a link to unmark a response if you don't feel it was good enough.

As explained by AidyF this is likely to counter the opposite that is not having the OP to mark any response or to not follow up at all. Then likely moderators are marking the one they prefer (even if not that good because the OP should have provided some
more info but if the OP never come back this is still the best we can get).

Re: What is the deal with people marking replies (theirs and others) as the answer on other peopl...

Who cares about points? Isn't this site all about helping people, helping fellow coders?

It's a waste of time reading and trying to implement an answer that might not be the answer after all, but a matter of opinion. I always held this site up above all others because of the way posts were marked as answered or not. In search results you could
skip over ones not marked as answered. Why would you want to read replies that didn't help (at least while you have results to look at that were marked as answer).

Re: What is the deal with people marking replies (theirs and others) as the answer on other peopl...

matt.gulick

Isn't this site all about helping people, helping fellow coders?

It is, but points can become a nice metric of appreciation. Sometimes we answer questions that we know this is the answer because we have experience in the matter, but there are other things that prevent the solution from working. There's also the cases
where we answer questions that can't be done, but the user doesn't like our answer because they just want to do it no matter what. Generally, points make someone feel appreciated as many of us spend countless, thankless hours answering many posts (sometimes
dozens) in a day with the best answers we know how only to watch the person ask the same question again... get the same answers they didn't like the first time or don't know how to implement, or they never say if the answer worked and just keep asking more
and more questions without a single thank you. That's why points can become a form of thank you for your effort.

Sometimes it doesn't feel like we are helping people as we often are demanded to do homework assignments, write their job interview answers, help them layout an extremely complex project they don't have close to the skill to tackle but we should do it for
them nevertheless because we are here.

Don't forget to mark useful responses as Answer if they helped you towards a solution.

Re: What is the deal with people marking replies (theirs and others) as the answer on other peopl...

Another thing is the moderation team waits up to five days to mark an answer if the answer is obvious. Other times, we will contact the original poster to ask they mark the answers or post a follow up message. Sometimes, folks from Microsoft may mark a
post as the answer even if it doesn't completely solve the problem. Not perfect by any stretch but the moderation team does try our best to ensure answers are marked if they are actually the answer.

Re: What is the deal with people marking replies (theirs and others) as the answer on other peopl...

markfitzme

Sometimes it doesn't feel like we are helping people as we often are demanded to do homework assignments, write their job interview answers, help them layout an extremely complex project they don't have close to the skill to tackle but we should do it for them
nevertheless because we are here.

Re: What is the deal with people marking replies (theirs and others) as the answer on other peopl...

matt.gulick

If some moderator (or whomever else has the power to mark replies as the answer) thinks someones reply is the answer to someones post then that is their opinion. it doesn't make it the answer. The reply might be a solution in a general scene but, it doesn't
mean its the answer to my specific problem, which is after all why people post here, to get answers to their coding problems.

if moderators are marking it as an answer and which is not solving your question .. then that is marked because other may find the solution helpfull .. if the doubt still persists then again raise a question.if the solution doesnt help you .. that doesnt
mean that it will not help others.

Re: What is the deal with people marking replies (theirs and others) as the answer on other peopl...

I think my only qualms are when answers are seemingly marked as answers simply because they are the last post within a thread (and may or may not have any value or answer the question in any way). This occurs quite commonly when the Microsoft "answer"
crew usually culls through some of the older threads and performs their usual cleanup, as the actual Moderation team appears to determine if a question was properly answered.

Re: What is the deal with people marking replies (theirs and others) as the answer on other peopl...

markfitzme

Sometimes it doesn't feel like we are helping people as we often are demanded to do homework assignments, write their job interview answers, help them layout an extremely complex project they don't have close to the skill to tackle but we should do it for
them nevertheless because we are here.

Lol, how many student / hotel management systems can possibly be needed :D Totally agree with all of the above and I often don't bother answering those questions. Would also be good if we can ignore/flag users that don't mark as answer.

I'm afraid I no longer use this forum due to the new point allocation system.

Re: What is the deal with people marking replies (theirs and others) as the answer on other peopl...

matt.gulick

It's a waste of time reading and trying to implement an answer that might not be the answer after all, but a matter of opinion. I always held this site up above all others because of the way posts were marked as answered or not. In search results you could
skip over ones not marked as answered. Why would you want to read replies that didn't help (at least while you have results to look at that were marked as answer).

I'm not sure. But, I agree with you that we should able to search answered (marked by questioner only) and i'ts default.

Re: What is the deal with people marking replies (theirs and others) as the answer on other peopl...

matt.gulick

It's a waste of time reading and trying to implement an answer that might not be the answer after all, but a matter of opinion

Sometimes, forum members post solutions based on their experience or research. But, accepting that solution as an answer is solely dependent on the person who asked the question. Instead of giving it a try, people just reply "Nope", "It did not work". I
have seen lot of posts from forum members which clearly shows the time and effort they put in to help other programmers. So, I feel that marking a reply as an answer is just a token of appreciation. But, how moderators and admin team marks them is a different
process and I would not like to comment on that.